Jalgaon Jumma Masjid- Temple Dispute: Apex Court Directs Municipal Council To Retain Keys And Open Gates For Namaz Throughout Day
|The Apex Court, while disposing of a Special Leave Petition against a Judgment of the Bombay High Court, directed the Jalgaon Municipal Council to keep the keys to both the front and the back gates and to open the gates of the Jalgaon Masjid throughout the day for the worshippers to offer namaz.
By the impugned judgment, the Bombay High Court had directed the Jumma Masjid to hand over the keys to the Chief Officer Municipal Council, Erandol on or before April 13, 2024. A complaint was filed by the Pandavwada Sangharsh Samiti (PSS), claiming that the mosque is a temple and accused the Muslim community of the encroachments, therefore, the District Magistrate passed an order restriction the entry of people into the disputed mosque, which was challenged before the High Court.
The High Court in July 2023 had granted a stay on the execution of the order passed by the District Magistrate, Jalgaon restricting people to enter the allegedly disputed mosque to offer namaz. While issuing the notice, the Court further directed the District Magistrate to hand over the key of the Jumma Masjid to the President of the Jumma Masjid Trust Committee.
The Bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice K.V. Viswanathan observed, “Leave Granted…Impugned Order dated 10.04.2024 is clarified to the following effect: 1. The key of the main entrance gate of the entire compound shall remain with the municipal council. 2. There shall be a status quo with regard to the masjid compound and it shall be under the control of the wakf board or the petitioner society till further orders. 3. The egress and ingress of temples or monuments shall be free from all kinds of hindrance and the people of different religions shall be allowed to visit without any disturbance. 4. The key to the back gate will also remain with the council and it will be the duty of the council to depute an official to open that gate well before the commencement of namaz in the morning and till all the namaz are performed during the day. 5. However, no encroachment of any kind shall be made by the parties.”
Justice Surya Kant asked, “Earlier it was something else, there was no Waqf Act, you were not required to declare Waqf Property, but now there is Waqf Act and thereafter it has been declared as Waqf Property and it is vested in the Waqf Board, how it can be still handed over to Trust? I want to understand that part.”
Advocate SS Kazi appeared for the Jumma Masjid and submitted that the Jumma Masjid Trust Committee is registered under Section 36 of the Waqf Act and is managed by the committee members.
Justice Kant further asked, “Under which provision the Waqf Board you can constitute a trust, by nominating the hand-picked persons?”
The Counsel referred to Section 67 of the Act which deals with the supervision of the committee.
It was submitted by the Respondents that the property was registered with the Waqf Board and the Jumma Masjid has no right over it and further that all these properties would be governed by the Waqf Act.
Justice Kant remarked, “The earlier society, trust, etc., will discontinue forthwith after the Waqf Act has come into force. If there is a masjid, that masjid becomes the Board’s property. This has to be managed and looked after by the Waqf Board. For that purpose, you can constitute the committee, but you cannot say that there is a Trust and you will hand over the property to the Trust. You are under statutory obligation to look after the property, you cannot hand over to any private entity.”
Senior Advocate S. Guru Krishnakumar for the Municipal Corporation submitted that the Masjid is declared as an ancient monument.
Justice Kant also said, “It is an ancient monument, but at the same time it's a Masjid where namaz is done…To harmonise the provisions, it appears from the property that there is a Masjid where namaz is ada etc. and all the rituals are performed. There is some open space which is a park and because it is an ancient monument, so the surroundings are there. There is probably a Jain temple also. So the park will be looked after by the municipality because that's a property under the Monuments Act..If there is any Society of Jains, who look after, then they will look after that temple. Masjid part only Waqf Board can take care and not any private entity.”
The Special Leave Petition was filed against the judgment passed by the Bombay High Court directing the Jumma Masjid to hand over the keys to the Chief Officer-Respondent on or before April 13, 2024.
Cause Title: Jumma Masjid Trust Committee v. The State of Maharashtra & Ors.